


Unwelcome Parties

by Emmeebee



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Gen, One-Shot, season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28760862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmeebee/pseuds/Emmeebee
Summary: When Faith returns to Sunnydale to help fight the übervamps, she doesn’t know what kind of welcome she’ll receive.
Relationships: Faith Lehane & Willow Rosenberg





	Unwelcome Parties

Faith’s knuckles were bone white as she gripped her seatbelt. Just the slightest pressure and she’d snap it. Outside Willow’s squeaky clean windows stood the familiar Sunnydale welcome sign, surprisingly cheerful for a town built on top of a hellmouth. How many people had it fooled into thinking they were moving to a nice, safe little community where their worst concern would be poor weather?

Lies. Nothing good ever happened in Sunnydale, not for her anyway. She used to think it might, but she’d been proven wrong time and time again.

‘You sure about this?’ Faith asked as Willow indicated to the left. They’d barely spoken since leaving LA; they’d never had much to say to each other, even when Faith first came to Sunnydale. Willow had been too tame to interest her. ‘B isn’t exactly going to be thrilled I’m here.’

‘No, she won’t be,’ Willow said without the slightest hint of regret. ‘But she’ll take all the help she can get right now.’

Faith frowned. Willow had told her about the übervamps, but she’d thought she was exaggerating. ‘Things must be pretty dire, then.’

‘We’ve faced dire before. This is worse.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Faith found herself saying. ‘We’ve got this. Two Slayers working together? These vamps don’t stand a chance, no matter how über they are.’

Willow smiled wanly.

Despite Faith’s bravado, she doubted Buffy would accept her presence as easily as Willow anticipated. If Buffy knew she was coming she’d have kicked the welcome sign down herself and replaced it with a sign warning her to stay away. Even in an apocalypse, Faith was the last person she’d trust to have her back in a fight.

Given their history, who could blame her? Faith had done some messed-up things over the years, most of them to Buffy or people she loved. She’d shot Angel with a poison arrow. She’d slept with Riley. She’d sided with the Mayor, not caring if he killed all of Buffy’s classmates.

And unlike Angel, who’d done even worse things than Faith, Buffy was goody-two-shoes enough not to forgive her. Just like always, Buffy wore the halo and Faith wore the horns. Even when Faith first arrived, before she killed that man and defected to the Mayor, Buffy was the good one. The perfect little angel.

Faith banged the back of her head against the headrest. They were both just kids back then, trying to survive in a high-stakes world that nobody prepared them for. She shouldn’t have expected Buffy to look past what Faith thought she needed to give her what she actually needed. Expecting her to just set them up to fail.

Besides, even if Buffy did send her packing, she deserved it. She needed to stop blaming other people for her own failings. She needed to do better, to be the person Angel saw a glimpse of when he saved her life.

‘I hope you’re right,’ Willow said quietly.

Faith grinned, a quick flash of teeth that felt perkier than she felt. Then, her voice light, she said, ‘Of course I am.’


End file.
